Blackbird Blackbird BlackBerry - Movie Review

Critics Score - 8 of 10

General Audience Score - 6 of 10

In about the most southeastern part of Eastern that you can find, on the other side of the Black Sea from Ukraine and Romania, lies the little country of Georgia, just a little bigger than the state of West Virginia, for those of us here in the U.S.. Every year we get many fantastic foreign films from all over the world, but especially from Europe, many of which go on to receive Oscar nominations for Best International Feature Film. This year we get a really special little film from Georgia called Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry, which first played at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival and is now getting out to some of the other film festivals to get more eyes on it. Blackbird is the simple story of a middle aged woman, for the sake of political correctness we’ll refer to her as the film does, plump. She’s a bit of a lone wolf, she has no husband, no children, she’s got no family left that the film mentions, but within the first few minutes the film clues us in that she has become ever more aware of this void in her life. While the film is slower paced, I was never bored and as it entered the third act, things escalated to one of, if not the best finale and concluding shot of any film I’ve seen this year. General audiences might find it a bit harder to connect to this delightful little movie, but cinephiles and critics everywhere should seek out the film with the name so good you get to say it twice, Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry.

SYNOPSIS - The films opens with a shot of churning water, the camera slowly pans in near some rapids or a rocky area of a river, the water churns brown from the sediment picked up from the bottom. The scene cuts to a shot of a blackberry bush, after a moment, a hand reaches out and picks one of the berries from the bush, then another before the camera pans around to show us who is doing the picking, it’s Etero, (Eka Chavleishvili), a middle aged woman who, being kind, let’s just say won’t be competing in any Miss Universe pageants. We hear birds chirping right before a blackbird comes and lands on her blackberry bush, she stares at the beautiful bird for a few moments before it flies off, through a canyon she’s come to for berries. Suddenly, we hear the sound of crumbling rock and Etero disappears from view, we watch as she slides belly down, feet first, down a dirt embankment towards a river below. Struggling, she grabs onto whatever she can get ahold of and pulls her body weight back up to the top of the rocky ledge, her hand and leg bloodied from the fall. As she walks home, she is crossing a bridge and sees a group of people below gathered around a body laying face down on the rocks. She walks down among the other people from her village and as they turn the body over, she sees herself, her face pale, covered in sand and her expressionless eyes tell us she’s no longer among the living. She had a vision of what could’ve been, had the fall she just experienced went differently.

Her near death experience sparks something in Etero and later that day, while she’s working at a small store that she runs that sells beauty products, she’s cleaning her scratches up from her fall when a distributor, Murman (Temiko Chichinadze), comes by to make a delivery. As she goes about tidying up her store, she looks at the man, probably in his late 50’s or so, you can see the wheels turning in Etero’s mind, but this is a woman who does not smile often, her solemn expression and naturally cool demeanor keep her thoughts a mystery. He calls to her from the stockroom, “Come, see what I’ve brought you.” She enters and after he tells her about the new packaging for some of the products he’s putting on the shelves, she leans into him, as if a predator smelling it’s prey before deciding whether to bite. After a moment of being unnaturally close to the man, she begins to kiss him, to which he immediately responds and the two take care of some business, right there in the stockroom. Despite being married, Murman begins a secret relationship with Etero and the effects of these decisions reverberate through various aspects of Etero’s life. By the finale, Blackbird ended up being far more touching, sentimental and moving than I ever could’ve guessed and while some films I’ve seen lately drop the ball right at the finish line, Blackbird hits it straight out of the park. It’s a home run.

Surprisingly, I’m not familiar with this Georgian director at all, Elene Naveriani, who has done a handful of other narrative features over the past decade, which I’ve never seen or even heard of, but she takes the helm of this ship with confidence. The eye behind Blackbird shows some directing chops, so whether this is simply a continuation of her previous efforts, or her skills have culminated to get to this point, I cannot say. And whether the director was able to pull this performance out of the actress or if she was just naturally able to put on such a show, I guess that might be a bit of a chicken or egg situation. Regardless, I’m not sure where they found the woman, Eka Chavleishvili, who plays Etero, the main protagonist, but whoever found her and made that casting decision, well done. She absolutely steals the show and her work, especially in her final scene as I mentioned, does much of the heavy lifting for the film, and I must say, it is absolutely marvelous. Otherwise, this grounded story and film aren’t showcasing many highly impressive technicals, no jaw dropping cinematography, no breathtaking sound design, original score or impressive production. That being said, the film utilizes some simple, but highly effective writing, plot progression, character arcs and storytelling to land some great cinematic scenes. This little foreign film is not only one of the best international films that I’ve had the pleasure of seeing this year, this is one of my favorite pieces of cinema of any kind in 2023.

SUMMARY - As I mentioned, despite my love of this movie, it just won’t appeal nearly as much to general audiences as it will to the arthouse crowd. Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry is as simple yet as profound as any film I’ve seen lately, so if international cinema is as close to your heart as it is to mine, take some time to take a flight with this Blackbird when you get a chance.